STRATEGIC PLANNING COMMITTEE REPORT Date of Meeting 20.06.2018 Application Number 15/01800/OUT Site Address Land at the West Warminster Urban Extension Site to the North of Victoria Road & to the West of Bath Road extending to circa 84 hectares Warminster Proposal Demolition of a series of agricultural sheds and one residential dwelling and the delivery of up to 1,000 dwellings (Class C3); a local centre of 0.56ha (to accommodate commercial development falling under Use Classes A1-A5, C2, C3 and D1); an employment area of 5.6 hectares (to accommodate various businesses falling under Use Classes B1, B2 and B8); a new primary school on a 1.8 hectare site (Use Class D1) and safeguarding a further 1.8 hectares for additional/secondary school provision; formal and informal recreational open space including sports pitches with changing facilities, children’s play areas and allotments; car parking; strategic and amenity landscaping including the provision of a noise bund along part of the northern and western site boundary; new land drainage and storm water attenuation ponds; foul and surface water drainage infrastructure; and provision of new highway infrastructure to include two roundabout accesses off Bath Road and Victoria Road and provision of a strategic road through the site. Applicant Persimmon Homes Ltd & Hannick Homes & Developments Ltd Town Council WARMINSTER Ward WARMINSTER WEST – Cllr Pip Ridout Grid Ref 386242 145693 Type of application Outline Planning Application Case Officer Kenny Green REASON FOR THE APPLICATION BEING CONSIDERED BY COMMITTEE This application is being referred to the Strategic Planning Committee as it is a large scale major EIA development on a site extending to some 84 hectares. The proposed development raises significant issues of more than local importance in terms of housing and employment land delivery, economic investment, job creation and the provision of new highway and education infrastructure. 1. PURPOSE OF REPORT To assess the merits of the application against the relevant national and local development plan policies and other material considerations; and to recommend that permission should be approved subject to the prior completion of archaeological trial trenching and completion of a s106 legal agreement and planning conditions. 2. REPORT SUMMARY The key determining planning issues are considered to be: The Principle of Development; Site Planning History; Loss of Agricultural Land; Highway Impacts; Drainage Matters; Landscape Matters, Urban Design and Neighbouring Impacts, Heritage Matters; Ecological Impacts; and, Developer Contributions and Commitments. This application is submitted in outline form with all matters reserved for subsequent approval except for the means of vehicular access to the site which would be formed by two roundabouts proposed off Bath Rd and Victoria Rd. Detailed matters comprising the layout, scale, appearance/house design/storey heights and landscaping are not open for detailed consideration at this time. Future reserved matters application submissions would need to deal with such detailed considerations. This outline application is however supported by a comprehensive illustrative masterplan and parameter plans. Warminster Town Council – Supportive of this application as set out in Section 7 of this report. Neighbourhood Responses: This application has been subject to two formal public notification exercises that comprised over 130 individual neighbour notification letters being posted as well as 8 site notices being displayed on and around the application site in addition to press advertisements. Following the application’s 2015 submission and public notification, 55 representations were received objecting to the proposed outline proposal, with 22 representations received from 8 third parties – submitting multiple submissions since March 2015. Following the submission of a revised package of plans and supporting statements to support the amended application in November/December 2017, 4 additional third party representations were received. A summary of the received representations can be found within section 8 of this report. 3. SITE DESCRIPTION The application site extends to approximately 84 hectares of predominantly gently undulating agricultural land located on the western periphery of Warminster’s current settlement boundary. The application site is strategically allocated for new housing and employment land in the adopted Wiltshire Core Strategy and represents about three quarters of the full extent of the WWUE allocation. The following insert illustrates the development template plan for the entire WWUE site. The land that is the subject of this application constitutes the vast majority of the land to the north of Victoria Road and the west of Bath Road. Source: Appendix A ‘Indicative’ Development Template Plan for the WWUE site On the following page the annotated insert plan below left shows the red lined extent of the application site and the following photographs contextualise and illustrate the site’s relationship with the rest of the WWUE allocation and the wider surroundings. Source: Application Site Parameters Looking south west across the site from A36 layby Looking north from Victoria Road along WARM4 Looking east across the site from WARM4 bridleway Looking south from WARM70 near A36 Looking north along Bath Road – the site is to the left Looking west across site from WARM 10 footpath Looking north-east to site from the Cley Hill summit The site photos illustrate the general wide open character of the large fields that are separated by well- established hedgerows and trees with denser tree belts along the site boundaries. As illustrated by the development template insert and the plan below, existing residential properties border part of the site’s southern boundary along with an undeveloped stretch of Victoria Road. The plan below illustrates how the A36 Trunk Road (in dark green) sweeps around much of the site’s northern and western boundary. Further to the west and north-west of the site, the ground rises gently towards the steep-sided Cley Hill, which forms a prominent and historic feature within the surrounding landscape and is a designated SSSI and Scheduled Ancient Monument. The land to the west of the A36 is designated AONB – which is shaded green. Norridge Wood which is a large broadleaved modern plantation on the site of an ancient woodland and County Wildlife site is also illustrated in the map insert, located to the north of the site beyond the A36. Crusader Park and Warminster Business Park located to the north east of the site, beyond Bath Road are also identifiable. Along Bath Road on the site’s north-eastern boundary, there are a scattering of residential properties with garden ground, paddock and other agricultural land adjoining parts of the site. Further to the north-east, and beyond Warminster town limits, the ground rises steeply to form a high ridgeline, which marks the edge of Salisbury Plain. A group of well-established trees comprising Ash, Field Maple, Hawthorn, Oak and Yew located close to the application site boundary on land behind 106 Victoria Road and immediately adjacent to PRoW WARM70 are protected by way of a TPO dated 14 August 2015 under ref: 2015/00015/GRP. Vehicular access to the site is currently achieved from Bath Road (via Coldharbour Lane) and from Victoria Road (opposite an existing secondary agricultural access that serves Bugley Barton Farm). There are additional agricultural field entrances accessed off the public highway and there are several Public Rights of Way (PRoW) running through the site which link the town with the open countryside. WARM4 runs in a westerly direction close to the southern boundary of the application site, crossing under the A36 via the underpass, and thereafter continuing in a north-westerly direction towards Cley Hill and the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB. Two spurs of WARM8 (forming part of the Mid Wilts Way long distance footpath which extends to circa 68 miles and stretches to the Berkshire border) traverse the site; one spur runs northwards from Victoria Fields (also known as the Swaledale Road development) via an existing farm track to the site’s northern boundary and adjoins the A36 before crossing the trunk road. The second spur runs westwards from Bath Road, along Coldharbour Lane and towards the A36. The PRoW continues to the west of the A36 where it runs parallel to the eastern boundary of Norridge Wood where both spurs coalesce and connect with WARM74. An additional connection is made with WARM70 which leads to Victoria Road. The WARM8 spur along Coldharbour Lane connects with WARM 9 & 10 which run southwards through the site before connecting with Grovelands Way. WARM 12 & 13 also branch from the spur of WARM 8 running in a northerly direction with WARM12 connecting with Bath Road to the north of the Crusader Park roundabout and WARM 13 linking with Bath Road further to the north, beyond the northern boundary of the site. There are no heritage assets found within the site but there are a number within relative close proximity, with the closest being the Grade II Listed Bugley Barton farmhouse which is located on the southern side of Victoria Road. Warminster Conservation Area is located to the south-east of the site some 200m away. Brick Hill Farm – a non-designated heritage asset is located opposite the site’s north-eastern boundary along Bath Road. Further along Bath Road and about 280m from the site, is the Grade II* St Denys Church. Cley Hill Scheduled Ancient Monument is located about 1km to the west, and the Registered Park and Garden of Longleat (which is Grade I listed) lies approximately 1km to the south- west and Battlesbury Camp Scheduled Ancient Monument approximately 3km to the east. The Coldharbour Meadows (a marsh and grassland site) adjoin part of the site’s north-eastern boundary accessed off Grovelands Way. The Corsley Heath to Chapmanslade Ridge Special Landscape Area is 0.2km to the north-west, and at its closest point; the Salisbury Plain SPA is 0.75km distant in a north- eastern direction.